A Delphi shop closed by Indiana's stay-at-home orders is using its downtime to make and donate thousands of clips meant to relieve the wear and tear of elastic on nurses' ears at a time when masks are required.

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Hometown Shirts and Graphix, a business in Delphi, has made and donated more than 3,000 clips designed to take pressure of elastic bands off the ears of nurses and other frontline workers who have to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic. Tricia Mendel, a co-owner of the company, said the shop is prepared to make another 20,000 as demand ramps up.(Photo: Photo provided)

DELPHI, Ind. – Crystal Shockley said she knew Hometown Shirts and Graphix had a knack for stepping up when there was a need in her hometown Delphi.

What Tricia and Mark Mendel had working this time, while their shop was closed for Gov. Eric Holcomb’s stay-at-home orders, was something Shockley really needed.

Elastic from the masks everyone was wearing during her shifts at Parkview Orthopedic Hospital in Fort Wayne were rubbing the back of their ears raw.

“I had mine on for an hour and had a sore,” Shockley said.

So, when she saw the plastic clips, fashioned to hold mask elastic at the back of the head rather around the ears, that Tricia and Mark Mendel – along with their son, Nick, at Ikonik Graphix – were making on the Carroll County Courthouse square, she asked for enough for all her coworkers on her shifts.

Tricia Mendel, right, and her son, Nick, work on laser-cut clips in their shop in Delphi. Hometown Shirts and Graphix has made and donated more than 3,000 clips designed to take pressure of elastic bands off the ears of nurses and other frontline workers who have to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic. Tricia Mendel, a co-owner of the company, said the shop is prepared to make another 20,000 as demand ramps up.(Photo: Photo provided)

Since starting on the project a week ago, Hometown and Ikonik have laser-cut and donated more than 3,000 clips to nurses, medical staff at hospitals and other front line workers in Greater Lafayette and across Indiana. The Delphi-based company this week received enough material to make another 20,000 more, Tricia Mendel said.

It started, Mendel said, when the shops closed to comply to the social distancing guidelines laid out by the governor. (The Mendels also own the Blue Moose, a frozen treat shop and restaurant on the square in Delphi.)

She said she toyed with making do-it-yourself masks, along with sewing groups that were popping up early in the stay-at-home days. But though Hometown Shirts and Graphix had all the embroidery equipment it needed, Mendel said she had no sewing machine.

When she read about nurses on the East Coast, where coronavirus cases were gaining traction earlier than they were in Indiana, and how they were struggling with ear breakdowns from elastic bands on masks, she figured their business could help during the downtime. Hometown Shirts and Graphix had been an outlet for two years for shirts raising money for Abby and Libby Memorial Park, dedicated to the memory of Abby Williams and Libby German, eighth-graders killed in 2017 along a Delphi trail.

“Originally, we thought we would only have 200 or 300 wanting them,” Mendel said. “We reached out to some of our friends in the medical field the first of last week to see if they wanted any for their facilities. Most said, ‘Thanks for the offer, but we think we are good.’ By Thursday several of them were calling and needing hundreds.”

That coincided with changing guidance from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention about who should wear masks. (Once discouraged among healthy Americans, masks are recommended protection against spreading coronavirus now.)

Hometown Shirts and Graphix, a business in Delphi, has made and donated more than 3,000 clips designed to take pressure of elastic bands off the ears of nurses and other frontline workers who have to wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic. Tricia Mendel, a co-owner of the company, said the shop is prepared to make another 20,000 as demand ramps up.(Photo: Photo provided)

They found initial designs online and did some trial-and-error redesign in their shop. Since then, they’ve made several hundred a day, some S-shaped hooks and others designed to work as fasteners around ponytails. Mendel said they’ve contemplated adding a second laser engraving machine to do more.

“However, with all three of our businesses closed we can only do so much and are a little leery of adding another machine when we don't know when we will be able to open back up to the public,” Mendel said. “This is a very scary time for all small business owners. I don't think any of us ever dreamed of anything like this happening.”

The clips, she said, are going to anyone on the frontlines – hospitals, EMS, fire departments, nursing homes and grocery stores, among them.

“I am constantly thinking of those on the frontline and can't imagine what they are going through every day,” Mendel said.

Shockley said she’s waiting for hers, as shifts change at her hospital, where she’s been moved from the operating room to, first, infection control and then to taking temperatures of staff before they start work, among other duties.

“Everyone has a mask on – some with the straps that go over their ears and some with ties,” Shockley said. “I want to give the coworkers that wear the ones over the ears what Hometown is making.”

WHAT YOU CAN DO: The hooks are free for frontline workers, though Hometown Shirts and Graphix is asking for shipping fees. To order, go to: www.hometownshirts.com. Details about how to donate to help cover costs are there, too.

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.